The Passage (#1)

The Passage (#1)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - SOON TO BE A FOX TV SERIES - This thrilling novel kicks off what Stephen King calls "a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction."

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR BY TIME AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post - Esquire - U.S. News & World Report - NPR/On Point - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - BookPage - Library Journal

"It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born."

An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy--abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape--but he can't stop society's collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.

Look for the entire Passage trilogy: THE PASSAGE - THE TWELVE - THE CITY OF MIRRORS

Praise for The Passage

" A] blockbuster."--The New York Times Book Review

"Mythic storytelling."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Magnificent . . . Cronin has taken his literary gifts, and he has weaponized them. . . . The Passage can stand proudly next to Stephen King's apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand, but a closer match would be Cormac McCarthy's The Road: a story about human beings trying to generate new hope in a world from which all hope has long since been burnt."--Time

"The type of big, engrossing read that will have you leaving the lights on late into the night."--The Dallas Morning News

An epic, awe-inspiring novel of good and evil - the most talked about book of the year, and now a global bestseller.

Reviews

If you only take one book away with you this summer, make it THE PASSAGE. It's an absorbing, nightmarish dream of a book, a terrifying apocalyptic thriller, populated by believable, sympathetic characters. Once you start reading it, you won't want it to end. THE TIMES The stuff of reading frenzies SUNDAY TELEGRAPH Cronin's massive novel transcends its cliches and delivers a feverishly readable post-apocalyptic-cum-vampire chiller. It's not only a brilliantly told story, with thrilling plot twists and graphic action sequences, but a moving psychological portrait of survivors facing up to the poignant fact of a lost past and a horrifically uncertain future. GUARDIAN A truly epic masterpiece that will have you hanging on for dear life -- Maxim Jakubowski LOVEREADING.CO.UK For most of this enthralling novel, it's not difficult to discern why the publisher is so excited. Cronin writes with verve and versatility, and is just as good in action scenes as he is in handling more literary material. His reinvention of vampires niftily ditches Transylvanian cliches and his future world is richly imagined. Above all, Amy is a superb creation, believably human yet beguilingly enigmatic. SUNDAY TIMES This epic tale is truly exhilarating stuff but what makes THE PASSAGE work so well is not its massive canvas, but the concentration on its human characters, notably six-year-old redhead Amy Harper Bellafonte. DAILY EXPRESS Epic, apocalyptic, heart-wrenching, catastrophic, mesmerisizing... DAILY MIRROR Every so often a novel-reader's novel comes along: an enthralling, entertaining story wedded to simple, supple prose, both informed by tremendous imagination. Read 15 pages, and you will find yourself captivated; read 30 and you will find yourself taken prisoner and reading late into the night. It had the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve. What else can I say? This: read this book and the ordinary world disappears. -- Stephen King Cronin is a skilled writer. Most of the characters are well drawn and he tackles the philosophical issue of gaining eternal life at the cost of your soul in between the throat-ripping battle scenes. I turned THE PASSAGE's pages feverishly to find out what happened next. OBSERVER A modern classic in the making. SFX As far as blockbuster novels go, this is up there with the most compelling. THE JOURNAL A gripping story and a richly drawn cast. This is an epic that often bears comparison with Stephen King. DAILY MAIL Read 30 pages and you will find yourself taken prisoner and reading late into the night. SUNDAY EXPRESS

Author description

Born and raised in New England, Justin Cronin is a multi-award-winning writer. He is professor of English at Rice University, and lives with his family in Houston, Texas.